Jiji no. 8

How To Train A Slime

He could only yet make three kinds of weapon: a gun, a grenade, and a sword.

Jiji’s knowledge of shapeshifting is still far from what he is needed to acquire, in order for him to be considered as a master shifter, and a powerful Sankt Vessel. Yet, Holder and Jiji had to cling at that lower place first, before they could be a powerful duo. Everyone always had to start from the bottom wasn’t it?

Holder was holding Jiji. His sweat was trickling down from his neck to his chest. He was laying his back at the wall. He was hiding at someone—or something. His breath is frantic, chest is pumping rigorously. He was holding Jiji who then is shape-shifted as a gun.

“When will we attack, Jiji?” asked Holder as he kept his back flat on the wall for a minute already.

“Wuuu?” The only problem is, Jiji too was unsure of when.

Holders’ chest became more heavy and loud. He was not sure of what he will do, but . . . alright, he will do it.

He said, “Tsk! Jiji there will be nothing happening if we just stay here!”

“Wuuf!” Jiji agreed with a muffled sound coming from the gun he was holding.

“Let’s go!”

“Wuuf!”

He knew that the enemy was just right behind that wall, near where they were hiding at. He knew that it was just waiting for them to attack. He too was sure that the sooner they attack, the sooner the activation of the trap it laid for them would happen.

But what can he do? There will be nothing good to happen if he was just hiding there for most of the time. He had to act now. And even sacrifice.

“Ahhhhh!”

He readied himself, rushed to his body towards the space where the walls ended. He pointed his gun to the direction where he knew the enemy was. Then pulled the trigger—one, two, and then fast, almost simultaneous, uncountable shots.

He was expecting that as soon as he showed his face to the direction where he left the enemy, it would stay there, not moving, lingering on the spot for a while, while waiting for him to finally attack.

But this was a simulation of a real battlefield.

And no fool soldier would stick its feet on a certain place just to favor its enemy. In battlefield, the real score is not just the weapon and the strength—but the wise decisions too; the ability to quickly adopt and think of wise decisions in the grace of a pressuring time.

That is why when Holder pulled the trigger of his Jiji-gun, it was too late for him to see that the enemy was not in the front anymore. It was too late too, when he realized that the enemy hid on another wall, near the standing huge pillar of the house they were training at.

When he found out that the enemy was at that position, he quickly ran in a way he would be laughed at—if audience would be here, watching them.

“Wuuf!” Jiji said.

Holder looked back at his enemy, and saw that it was about to pull the trigger of its own gun.

“KRRRR!” Jiji changed the tone of his voice (he was capable of doing it) and started to sound like an angry cat.

As the loud reverberation of the firing gun started to boom in the speed of lightning, Jiji started moving. Holder ducked, sat at the ground, and used Jiji to shield himself.

Now, Holder looked like a bad man as he sacrificed the life of Jiji for the sake of his protection, but, it was not just his surviving instinct who let him do the act. It was also with Jiji’s action, jumping at his front, protecting him. It too, was because if a certain voice—it was just vague, and he could not solidify what is the characteristic of the voice whether if it was girly, or of a man, whether if it was soft, or bass, or pitchy. All he knew, is that inside his head, there’s a voice. And it said, “make shield.” He knew then who has the capability of making a shield: Jiji, the Sankt Vessel who can shape-shift.

From his arms, the gun burst in a slimy form. For a second, it was form-less, it glowed in black, and . . . it was pulsing. Like a sponge living under the sea, having no serious idea what could be its real, concrete, and shaped form. It was a shape in chaos.

It only took a snapful of millisecond. But the scene inculcated at Holder’s mind—as if the scene had ‘slowmo’ action in his eyes, making him capture every bits of its appearance clearly. Then, the formless thing started to reshape.

Surprisingly, Jiji made another feat: he created another form. A shield. That shield had deflected the bullet from the enemy’s fired gun.

When Holder knew that he was safe, he stood up. He was furious.

“Hey, you almost kill me!” He looked at his enemy, and told.

“But you’re not dead.” From hiding to the wall, his enemy appeared. It was Benny Flick.

Well, he was actually not a real enemy. But for this training, the instructor Benny told Holder to treat him as his enemy. Kill if necessary. Because that is what probably would happen when he was emerging in the real battlefield, sooner.

“But you . . . you just pulled the trigger! It went to me and almost killed me! Have Jiji not deflected it, I would be insanely dead by now!”

“Wuu!” Jiji said. He was showing a cute yet angry expression, much like Holder was doing.

“Awee. The both of you are really cute!” Benny went towards them, and started to pinch their cheeks.

“Ow! Hey, Benny stop it!”

Benny refused to listen to him. He pinched his cheek harder, and even Jiji too—which in the case of Jiji, he liked it.

When he was done, he stood straight, and said, “you know I am confident that a bullet would not matter to you.”

He whistled. Spot, his Sankt Vessel showed up with another poetic bow. Benny hand him the gun, and when the Sankt Vessel grabbed it, he teleported back.

Benny looked at Holder and Jiji again. “After all, the both of you are strong. I know Jiji can do it. And I know too that you, Holder, was a big influence to the Sankt Vessel. Remember that for every skill that a Sankt Vessel uses, it was consuming your strength too. Jiji’s source of skill capability was from your strength. That’s why I am confident that you can easily dodge the death-train of bullet rushing to bump you.”

“Because?” Holder asked.

“Because you are strong, and Jiji was smart. It was a perfect combination of partnering, don’t you know?”

“You mean I’m just strong, but dumb?”

Benny laughed. “It may not show now, but everyone in the elite group of Sankt Vessel users are all dumb.”

Holder laughed. “Even professor Zen?”

“Have you seen her being drunk? She was the dumbest when she’s at that state.”

“Oh, I have seen it. How about Lalaine? Is she dumb too? She left me earlier, not even minding me to follow when I’m having my dramas.”

Benny’s face turned pale.

“Benny? Hey, what’s happening to you.”

The body of his instructor started to shake.

“Benny? Hey!”

“What was it?” Benny asked again.

“I said what about Lalaine? She’s dumb isn’t she?”

Benny’s eyes closed remorsefully.

“What is happening to you?” Holder asked. Then, he saw Jiji frozen too. His bloodshot eyes were filled with horror as it stare near Holder’s back.

Holder slowly—slowly—turned his pale face to his back. He wanted to check what Jiji and Benny was being afraid for.

When he saw, he too froze. His joints locked.

A woman. With dark shadowy face standing. She is manically smiling which gives a certain message: I will fuckin’ kill you. Her head is slightly tilted to the left. And she was holding a knife.

“What is it again?” the woman asked.

“I—I say the Elite Sankt Vessel users, especially you, Lalaine, were dumb—I mean! I mean were not—NEVER!—a dumb.”

“It’s time for your second lesson, don’t you know? I was watching you from the dark all the time, even when you’re training with Benny. Professor Zen told me you have to move to the next training. That is . . . if you will still be alive before you can enter the next instructor’s lesson. Now, go Holder. Go. Run. Save your life. Save your petty life. Before I can kill you.”

“JIJIIIIII! LET’S GOOOO!”

“WUUUUU!”

Holder and Jiji, not wasting a time, started to escape the bloodlust of a Lalaine Mishap.

Lalaine sighed when she saw Holder finally closing the door of Benny’s house.

“You are scary as hell, girl,” said Benny, laughing.

Lalaine grinned too. “What a coward,” she said. But when she remember what happened at Holder’s training, she frowned.

“Hey, are you okay training him?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You knew it.”

“That Holder will not be an ordinary soldier of the Agnosbadtt?”

Lalaine nodded. “More so, the fact that . . . he’s stronger than you.”

Benny smiled. “It’s my pleasure to help him. He is indeed strong. But he needs more knowledge.”

“But what about the prophecy? I have long accepted it. But how about you?”

Benny sighed, and then looked at the blue and green aurora lights swirling from above. “The prophecy shall happen. No, it will really happen.”

“Can you accept it?”

“The prophecy, yes. But for my fate, girl, just like you, I think I need time.”

Lalaine again sighed. Her green forest eyes flickered in sadness. “We have to accept now that the future of the Agnosbadtt . . . was not in our hands anymore.”

Benny nodded. “All we can do is trust Holder and the purity of his heart, and his capability as a Sankt Vessel user.”